The Swedes held their own Saturday against a field packed with Class A schools but were edged out by Gering for the sweepstakes plaque.

Instead, the Swede speech team brought home a runner-up plaque.

Ten points separated Gothenburg from Gering at the end of a two-day debate and speech contest in North Platte Friday and Saturday.

Of the 26 schools competing, Gering ended with 410 points and the Swedes had 400.

Norfolk was a distant third with 210 points.

To be eligible for the sweepstakes award, schools had to compete both in debate and speech.

After Friday’s debate contest, Swede speech team adviser Dan Jensen said Gothenburg was in fifth place behind Norfolk, Gering, Lexington and Hastings.

“We knew Saturday that we would have quite a deficit to make up but Gering got too many students into finals for us to overtake them,” Jensen said.

Teaming up to win public forum debate Friday, with wins in five rounds in the novice division, were juniors Carlin Daharsh and Ashley Wilkerson.

On Saturday, Daharsh also received first in poetry in varsity competition and Betsy Potter earned gold in serious prose.

There was no novice competition on Saturday. After two rounds, qualifying students competed against each other in a championship round for the top six places and an honors round for places seven through 12.

Overall, Jensen said the Swedes performed “typically well.”

“In a few instances, we may have let the emotions of breaking (making) finals affect performances, but most of our students handled it well,” he said.

Sometimes, Jensen said competitors get the jitters or place too much emphasis on one round of competition.

“They can get intimidated by that,” Jensen said. “And sometimes I see kids get so disappointed about not breaking finals in one event that they perform poorly in the event that they did break in.”

Weather Forecast

e-Subscription Login

E-Subscriptions are now offered with each week's complete issue available in PDF format on Wednesday afternoons. To purchase an E-Subscription please fill out our Contact Form and select 'Request an e-Subscription.'